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The Thin Man
Studio: Warner Brothers (originally MGM)
Year: 1934
Rated: NR
Film Length: 91 minutes
Aspect Ratio: Full Frame
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portugese
"The murderer is sitting in this room sitting
at this table. You may serve the fish."
Wow!
I feel quite uncomfortable admitting that before
today, I had never seen a single Thin Man
film. Most of my youth was spent watching films
from the 50's and 60's. Anything further back was
mostly Cagney and Bogart films.
In order to properly do this review, I decided
to do some research. I discovered that The Thin
Man is the first installment in a line of a
popular series of films, 6 in all, that spanned
the years 1934-1947. The film originated from a
1932 detective novel that was written by one of
the masters of the genre, Dashiell Hammett. It's
easy to see why this series was so popular -- there
was absolutely wonderful and witty repartee and
chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy. I
can see how audiences immediately fell in love with
the both of them -- I know I did!
As the film opens, we meet an eccentric, tall,
inventor named Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis) - the
"thin man" of the film title. Clyde is working
in his basement inventor's workshop. He is suddenly
interrupted when his daughter Dorothy (Maureen
O'Sullivan) and future son-in-law Tommy (Henry
Wadsworth) arrive to announce their wedding plans.
Clyde tells her that he is going away to work on
a invention, but refuses to tell her exactly where
he is going or when he will return. The only promise
he makes is that he will return in time for Christmas
to give her away.
As the Christmas season draws to a close and the
inventor has yet to return, his worried daughter
contacts Nick Charles (William Powell), a once
celebrated private detective known for solving
high-profile cases and landing on the front pages
of the tabloids. He married a beautiful woman named
Nora (Myrna Loy), and has since gone into retirement,
dedicating his life to the woman he loves (and spending
her money as well).
With a murder case practically falling into Nick's
lap, his wife pushes him to come out of retirement
and help solve the case. Nick finally does some
investigating on his own and decides the only way
to solve the murder is to invite all the crazy
suspects to a large dinner in hopes one of them
will confess. You have no idea how wild an evening
this is going to be until Nora Charles exclaims,
"Waiter, will you serve the nuts? - I mean, would
you serve the guests the nuts?"
How is the transfer?
Granted, this film is nearly 70 years old. I have
never seen any previous television or video
broadcasts, so I am very uncertain as to how this
film originally looked and how much Warner has
cleaned it up for DVD. I mention this because I
am a little concerned about the quality of this
transfer which looks average, at best. The print
is filled with occasional scratches and nicks.
Starting at chapter 13, there is what appears to
be a constant scratch line down the entire right
edge of the frame. This line continues through most
of the following chapter. I also felt that the
image quality wasn't overly sharp with some of the
shots looking a little on the hazy side.
The mono soundtrack is as good as one would
expect from a film of this era -- sounding shrill
and raw. There's also a considerable amount of
audible background hiss here.
Still, considering the film's age and the fact
that Warner Brothers probably wasn't going to do
a total restoration of this film, this is probably
good enough to satisfy fans. I remember talking
to a restoration team at another studio who
reminded us that there was a lot of hesitance to
release many of the old B&W titles for the mere
fact that the studios could not afford to completely
restore every title to pristine perfection. It is
unfortunate that DVD has spoiled us to the point
where we demand the best from every title,
and I am afraid it is not always possible.
Special Features
Basically what we have here are the trailers for
all 6 Thin Man movies as well as a cast and
crew filmography page that is rather limited in
browsing capability.
Final Thoughts
The fun of watching The Thin Man has very
little do with figuring out who murdered who, but
rather sitting back and enjoying the witty banter
of Powell and Loy. The film may not have been the
perfect whodunit, but it sure prompts one to mix
a martini and spend an evening with Nick and Nora.
If you are looking to broaden your horizons into
some fine classic cinema, this is a great place to
start!
Release Date: October 1, 2002
